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FCC hits carriers with largest fine for privacy violations

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) proposing a US$10 million fine against two telecommunications carriers for failing to take reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect the personal information of their subscribers and for exposing their customers to unacceptable risk of identity theft or possible other harm. The NAL is the largest proposed fine the FCC has sought for an alleged privacy violation by a carrier. It is also the first time the FCC has found in its underlying statutory authority a duty of carriers to “employ reasonable data security practices to protect” customers’ personal information.